Overview
- The bench trial, which began July 13, is creating a day‑by‑day factual record about Oregon’s Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act and how the state’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system operates.
- Witnesses described a split in duties where the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality decides producer delinquency and the Circular Action Alliance carries out administrative tasks such as publishing delinquency lists.
- Industry testimony quantified compliance burdens, with R. J. Schinner’s witness saying the company logged about 1,000 hours building reporting systems and Harbor Wholesale Foods’ CFO testifying the company was first billed roughly $230,000 in contested fees.
- Experts and distributors told the court that state‑specific rules force firms to trace multilayer packaging, assign material fees, and change logistics across regional distribution networks, which NAW says burdens interstate supply chains.
- Oregon’s lawyers countered on cross‑examination that many problems reflect implementation choices or business decisions and questioned whether plaintiffs fully used rulemaking and administrative channels before suing, a dispute that the judge is now resolving through the trial record.